Key insights from
The World in a Grain: The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization
By Vince Beiser
Audio available
12 minute read
Published Aug 7, 2018
What you'll learn
The story of sand may not sound scintillating at first, but sand is a substance that has become indispensable to modern society and a hotly contested resource as we begin to run out of it. Its desirability is altering the world’s maps, politics, organized crime interests, and ecosystems, as humans try to find enough to keep up with growing demand.
Key insights
- 1 Sand seems commonplace and even unimportant, but the world would be a different place without it.
- 2 Besides water and air, we use sand more than any other substance.
- 3 The sand you casually scrape off your shoes as you enter your home is older than dinosaurs.
- 4 Sand mining takes heavy tolls on environments and societies around the world.
- 5 There is a global black market sand trade run by “sand pirates” and “sand mafias.”
- 6 The world is experiencing a sand shortage that may never be resolved without the collective intention to consume less.
Similar titles
